Breathless • Malec

The Perfect Present: Part One

I punched her in the arm lightly. "Jace will never know."

We began trudging up the stairs. "Alec, you can't just hide forever. It's not good for you."

"I've been hiding for this long," I said with a weak smile. "What's the rest of my life?"

~~~~

A few hours later, I found myself out again. With only three days until Christmas, I was beginning to worry. Jace and I have a Christmas tradition of going to the nearest Taco Bell and ordering all of the tacos we could possibly eat. After that, we would go back home and watch The Santa Clause.

I didn't know if any of that would happen this year. And though I knew I should be more worried about my best friend, Magnus seemed to be the main thing on my mind. I suppose I was too stubborn to text first and I hadn't heard anything from him since our kiss. We had only known each other a few months, but he was a big part of my life.

He was my first kiss, after all. That had to count for something, right? I kept trudging down the main street as I muddled through my thoughts.

I had saved up some money from doing some odds and ends jobs since I knew I would need to buy some presents. I had already picked up a gift card for Izzy, but I didn't even know if I should get Jace anything. Then, well, there was Magnus.

It was starting to get dark outside and the snow was falling at a rapid pace. I shivered as I looked around the nearly empty street, give or take a few cars. The lampposts were already lit, with red bows festively tied around them. Multicolored Christmas lights were wrapped around the posts.

I stopped at a thrift shop and looked through the window. What I saw almost seemed to glow with an otherworldly light and I knew at that second, that it was the perfect gift for Magnus.

A brass locket with a chunky chain hung on a mannequin's neck. It wasn't long, and I figured that it would hit right under his collarbone. The locket itself was in the shape of an oval. It was a polished golden shade and there were tendrils of black snaking all along it. In the center, there was a shadow of a tree that took up most of it. There was a clasp on the side of the locket, so I knew I could fit a picture inside of it.

It was enchanting, beautiful, and strange, and I thought all of those adjectives summed Magnus up.

I opened the door to the shop and walked over to the display case and gulped, praying that it wasn't over a hundred dollars. I flipped over the price tag and began beaming when I read that it was on sale for only forty.

I picked it up and the metal felt cool in my hands. My jaw was set firmly as I made my way up the cash register. I found myself face to face with a tall, large woman with long, curly blonde hair and a warm smile.

"Hi, darlin'," she smiled. She spoke with a heavy southern drawl. "Some last minute Christmas shopping?"

I nodded. I definitely wasn't a people person and conversing with strangers had always made me feel awkward. I quickly handed over the necklace. Her inviting smile vanished as she looked it up and down.

"Sorry, hon," she frowned. "I don't know why it's out, but that necklace is reserved. Would you like to pick out something else?"

My stomach dropped as I took another look at the necklace. "Really?" I asked, feeling heartbroken. I knew that was the present for Magnus.

"I'm sorry, dear," the woman smiled softly. "There's more things like this over there if you'd like to look." She pointed to the back section of the store.

I put my hands into the pockets of my baggy jeans and kicked the ground. "Thanks for your help," I responded, and decided that I would be better off just heading home. Maybe I'd look around town a bit more, but I knew, in my heart, that I wouldn't find anything as perfect as the locket, no matter how hard I could try.

~~~~~~

Breathing heavily, I shoved the heavy down blanket off my body. I had just woken up from a nightmare, the memory of it was beginning to fade. Apparently, I was loud. Loud enough to wake Jace up, and that was a feat in itself.

"Alec?" Jace whispered although I don't know why. Simon, our roommate, was never there. He always crashed at his friend, Eric's dorm. That was fine by us.

"Sorry," I whispered back, trying to focus on my breathing. "Bad dream." With one hand on my chest, I used the other to try and brush back my hair.

"I'm sorry," Jace said, sitting up to face me. Our beds were only a few feet apart. "Want to talk about it?"

I shook my head, and Jace nodded in response. "Alec..." he began, trailing off.

"Yes?" I replied. My heartbeat had gone back to its regular pace.

Jace sighed. "I'm sorry, Alec. You didn't deserve to be treated the way I treated you. At all. I overreacted. Can you forgive me?"

"Yes," I said, nodding. "You're totally forgiven." I looked at the alarm clock and saw that it was three in the morning. "Are we still on for Taco Bell tomorrow?" I asked.

"Shit," Jace mumbled, rubbing his forehead. "I made plans with Clary." He looked at me, and I could tell he truly felt guilty. "What about on Christmas day?" he asked.

"I think that would be just fine," I smiled, happy that we had finally settled the anger between us. "Now, I think I'm going to try and go back to sleep," I told him, laying back down onto my pillow and dragging the covers onto the bed.

"And I think I'll do the same," he agreed.

And though I was extremely glad Jace and I were good again, I couldn't help but feel a bit of irritation about trying to find not only one but two perfect gifts for the people I cared about most (Izzy expressly told me she wanted a gift card).

I didn't have any clue on what I was going to do.

~~~~

I mainly spent the day wallowing in my bed, instead of actually doing anything that needed to get done. I was very good at procrastinating.

I scrolled through my contacts, after going through every possible social media. My heart jumped when I saw Magnus's name. I clicked on the contact, my finger hovering over the call button. In that moment, I had a flash of courage and pressed down on the call button. As soon as I did, I began panicking.

The phone rang three times before he answered.

"Hey," he said. "I was beginning to think that you were never going to call me." I could practically hear him smile.

"Well," I spoke. "Here I am." There was an awkward silence. "Uh, I actually wanted to ask you something."

"And that is?"

I paused. "Would you like to, you know, hang out or something on Christmas Eve? Or, if you're busy then, we could hang out on Christmas, or another day, we could figure something out-"

"You're rambling, Alexander," Magnus chuckled. "So... you want to spend Christmas with me?"

"Why do you sound so surprised?" I frowned.

Magnus sighed. "You have... you have people in your life that you care about and who care about you. It just seems crazy that you'd want to spend it with me, of all people."

"Magnus, I think you're forgetting something." I took a deep breath before continuing. I was awful at expressing my feelings, but I thought Magnus deserved it, even if it was hard for me. "I like you, a lot. I really care about you, and you're the person I want to spend time with, okay?"

"And I feel the same way for you," Magnus replied.

"But?" I asked, feeling like there was something he wasn't saying.

"Wouldn't you rather spend it with Jace? Or your sister?" He stopped. "I mean, I know you care about me, but I'm not that important, am I?"

I shook my head. "Magnus, you're very important to me. Please, just trust me on this." I thought for a second and chose my next words carefully. "You're the only person I want to spend Christmas with right now."

"And that's a good thing?"

I nodded, even though he couldn't see me. "Believe me, it's a very good thing."